I grew up watching old movies on Saturdays. My father is the one that got me interested in them and if I was lucky he was home to sit and watch one with me. We both loved the old musicals. Reading The Limits of Limelight took me right back to those days of sitting on the sofa with my daddy watching Fred and Ginger dancing on the TV. He was of the generation where men knew how to dance so despite my dad’s gruff exterior he was a magnificent dancer. I used to love any time we were at a party where there was an opportunity to dance because he knew all the old dances like the waltz, the foxtrot, etc.

So in turning the pages of this book I was given the gift of those memories and for that I truly thank the author. As for the story – it was really quite engaging. Small town girl goes to Hollywood and makes it…in the career that works for her.

The old time Hollywood tales are always interesting to me for any number of reasons but this one having Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as ancillary characters made it special even though they aren’t the focus they did help star it up a bit. This is Helen/Phyllis’s story and the main focus is on her but when you have a cousin that famous she is going to sneak into your life no matter how much you might wish otherwise.

If you like old Hollywood and stories of female friendships you will find The Limits of Limelight as engaging as I did. So open a copy, sit in a comfortable easy chair, hoist a cocktail (alcoholic or not) of choice and dive in to a compelling tale of times gone by. ( )

For those who love to read about the truth of what goes on behind the scenes, this is your novel. This was a very interesting read into the glitz, glitter and life of movie starts trying to make it big when Hollywood was still beckoning any beautiful female. Men still had the run of things, and these girls and women were shuffled around like pawns and dropped like just as easily as they were given a chance.

This novel follows the lives of Ginger Rogers, her mother Lela who was her manager and their niece Helen a.k.a Phyllis who often was found in the shadow of Ginger and known by association. Making it in Hollywood was not all glamour and these women all had to fight tooth and nail, it was every one for themselves and often favors were given in hopes of advancement. Hollywood really had a lot of scandal, and I feel it still does today and even after almost a century, not much has changed.

Helen is given what she thinks is the opportunity of life time when her cousin and aunt talk her mother in allowing her to go back to Hollywood with them for the summer just to see how things go. Soon Helen is wrapped up in this other world but soon learns it is not as easy as just saying back lines or having a pretty face. She is being submerged into how you are to act, live and portray yourself while out there, competing with every other beautiful woman- day in and day out. But once you are in that lifestyle, you don’t want to leave and often she goes head to head with her mother who wants her back home and not wrapped up in scandal like her sister and niece have gotten into, in the past.

This was an interesting read, and I highly suggest it for those who really enjoyed reading Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts. It really gives insight into the beginning of Hollywood, movies and how brutal of a world it could be for those fighting for a role on the silver screen. Thank you to HFVBT for the invite and the author for the free book and goodies! ( )

I'm so sorry to say that while this book held my interest enough to finish, the writing didn't invest me emotionally in the characters. Instead, the narrative felt stilted and forced. And the writing seemed fixated on telling us unnecessary details.

I found some of the name-dropping interesting, especially when the movies got a little more towards the 1940s and the author's pages at the end of the book were fascinating. I love hearing how Ms. Porter researched this book. However, this was the only redeeming value for me.

I know that this book is a bit fictional (the conversations at the very least), But the rest was biographical. If this is true, and I've no reason to doubt this, Ginger Rogers and her Mother, Lela was selfish and spoiled. But I suppose that was the era and the manner in which these women grew up.

There was so much tragedy in this novel.

At any rate, if you like fictional biographies of old-time stars, I think you will like this book much more than I did. On that note, I do recommend this book to those who loved Ginger Rogers-this book was so very much about her, really.

*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley. ( )